PETIT JEAN STATE PARK (AP) — Petit Jean State Park is about to unveil a $4.3 million set of improvements at Mather Lodge, including a new restaurant that places diners along panoramic windows overlooking Cedar Creek Canyon.

The new facilities open to the public on Tuesday, giving workers another week to make sure the restaurant and other elements are running smoothly.

The 2,600 acre-state park opened in the 1930s, making it the oldest in the Arkansas system. The restaurant was added in the 1960s. To bring it into the 21st century, the old restaurant was torn down and reconstructed to conform to the Depression-era architecture of the original lodge, which still stands.

The new building also houses a reception area for the lodge just inside the main entrance. The park added another set of restrooms at the site of the lodge swimming pool, which was replaced. The restrooms also open at the start of the popular Cedar Falls Trail.

The 24 rooms in the lodge were also updated, getting flat-screen TVs. The park also has cabins and campgrounds.

The Arkansas Parks and Tourism Department funded the renovation with money from the 1/8-cent state sales tax for conservation.

Taxpayers have funded a series of renovations to lodges at state parks. DeGray Lake State Park was the first to benefit from the tax, which was approved in 1996. Since then, the lodge at Mount Magazine State Park has been rebuilt and similar work is taking place at Queen Wilhelmina State Park.

At Petit Jean State Park, the lodge and cabins were constructed by workers from the Civilian Conservation Corps from 1933 to 1938, with the Works Progress Administration also doing some of the work.

The architecture of the new building fits the CCC style inside and out. Huge log beams support the structures and stone walls gird the exterior walls.

The windows in the restaurant’s main seating area stretch from floor to ceiling and patrons can watch hawks and other birds coast on the air currents above the canyon.

Lodge patrons and other park visitors spent more than $700,000 at the restaurant the last year it operated, Park Superintendent Wally Scherrey said.

Bookings at cabins that weren’t affected by the renovation fell while the restaurant was closed, Scherrey noted.

“When people come here, they don’t want to cook,” he said.

The restaurant’s menu will be expanded. The items will be prepared in a new kitchen, with updated equipment and enough space so workers aren’t working on top of one another.

The new building features a small conference space; the nearby Winthrop Rockefeller Institute handles larger groups.

Arkansas State Parks Director Greg Butts said the parked used local vendors for the construction work, just as the CCC cut wood and stone from the mountain for the original construction. The new work fits better architecturally than the original restaurant.